Three and a half weeks into this forty-day journey through Lent, we may have become lost. Perhaps we have returned to our normal habits, chafing under the disciplines of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. Perhaps we have slipped and found ourselves rationalizing our failures. The story of the prodigal son, which we hear today, reminds us that no matter what we have done or failed to do, God stands always ready to welcome us back. No matter how far we have strayed, rejoice! for we are never too far gone to return to God.
This weekend we hear that on the plains of Jericho, the Chosen People finally reach a fertile land that can produce food for them to eat. Paul extols God’s goodness, for God reconciled the world through Christ. In the Gospel story of the prodigal son, the father is so overjoyed at his wayward son’s return that he throws a huge feast, serving the choicest food and insisting his son wear the household’s finest clothes. From beginning to end, we can, as we sing in the responsorial psalm, “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.”
Food is one of the most basic human needs. We would not last long without it. In the desert, lack of it drove some to rage and others to despair. Only after God provided manna were the Chosen People able to complete their journey to the promised land. There, as we hear in the first reading, they can eat of the produce of the land of Canaan. Whether directly or indirectly, God’s providence supplies a famished people with food. In sacrificing his body and blood, Jesus provides a spiritually famished people with sustenance.
The prodigal son is starving just the same as the Chosen People in the desert. He is willing to eat as poorly as one of his father’s hired workers. Instead, his father spends his own wealth (for he had already given his son half his legacy) to provide a feast for him, a banquet of reconciliation. The prodigal son sinned in every way possible, spurning his father and living a dissolute life. Yet the father welcomes him back with open arms. We recall this feast as we approach the Eucharistic table as sinners today, which itself foreshadows the banquet of reconciliation we are promised when we at last are united with God.
For us, we can likely relate to each of the characters in this parable in some way. At times we have sheepishly returned to someone we have wronged and asked forgiveness. Other times we have resented that someone unworthy was rewarded and we have refused to be placated. We may also recall celebrating a loved one’s apologetic return. Knowing that we have a heavenly Father who does this continually, let us adopt the attitude of the penitent son, who is rewarded with true reconciliation.
Question of the Week
How can I be merciful like the father in this parable? What resentments do I need to overcome? Can I be truly forgiving to someone who has hurt me or those I love?